Letters from SQA's Incoming & Outgoing Presidents

The SQA has been a part of my life for the past dozen years. My introduction to it came from my first boss, Jim Gordon, who at the time was the sitting president. As a young quant starting out in the business with a surfeit of enthusiasm but short on practical experience, it perfectly bridged that gap between academic rigor and practical application. The meetings, structured like a graduate seminar, provided an opportunity to learn from and network with other like-minded individuals, many of whom have become close friends over the years. I am honored to pick up the torch and stand on the shoulders of those who have come before me in assuming the role of president of the Society.

I would like to thank last year’s president, Inna Okounkova, past-president, Peg DiOrio, and all of the officers, board members, administrator, and volunteers. Through their diligence and tireless efforts the Society finds itself on sound financial footing with a robust and engaging program schedule. They have all been an invaluable resource for me over the past several years and I know I will continue to call on their wisdom and experience in the year to come. The success of SQA is truly a team effort.

We will continue to seek out new ways to engage with and deliver content to our members including through social media and partnering with other quantitatively focused organizations. We have some exciting events planned for 2017/18. In addition to our usual line-up of monthly seminars and Fall Half-Day and Spring Fuzzy-Day conferences, this January we are planning an additional conference, co-hosted with the NYSSA, to further explore current advances in data science.

I'm looking forward to another year of growth and success. Please mark your calendars and join us throughout the year for cocktails, conversation, and cutting edge quantitative research. We'll be saving you a seat.

Best regards,
Kenneth Hightower
SQA President

Dear friends of SQA,

We’ve just concluded a very successful year. Our events were well attended, including the oversubscribed Fuzzy Day conference on Data Science. Many thanks again to Ben Steiner, who was instrumental to organizing the conference and Jeff Sherman, who has helped us with graphics for this and all other SQA events. We are going to continue to explore this topic. On January 18, 2018, together with the CFA Society of New York, we will co-host a conference on Data Science. Stay tuned for this and other exciting events we are planning for you.

Please help us spread the word about SQA. Our main mission is to help finance professionals continue to learn. In addition, we facilitate networking; all our events include time during which attendees can talk to speakers and with each other.

Please invite your colleagues and friends to become SQA members. SQA members have many benefits. They:

-Attend our events at a discount, which more than pays for the annual membership fee

-Receive discounts to other quant events, such a $500 discount to the upcoming ARPM Bootcamp

-Access the SQA directory, where they can connect and message each other

We welcome your feedback and suggestions. You can submit ideas for upcoming programs into the Idea Box (http://www.sqa-us.org/ideabox/) on our website as well as vote for other people’s ideas. Please also keep filling out surveys after our events as they help us make our programs better for you.

To conclude, I would like to thank everyone who made the year a success. First of all, I would like to thank the officers for organizing our events. Next, I would like to thank the entire Board and our administrator for smoothly running our organization. Lastly, I would like to thank our generous sponsors - MSCI and Barclays - for helping make our financial situation more secure.